The former Dell Inc. employee who pleaded guilty as part of the Justice Department’s insider-trading probe earlier this month said he passed confidential information to hedge funds and other clients of three expert-network firms.

During his allocution on Dec. 10, Daniel DeVore told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff that Primary Global Research “bribed” him to offer the insider-information to its clients. DeVore served as a consultant for Primary Global and two other research firms offering expert-network services, and told Rakoff that Primary Global had paid him about $145,000.

DeVore is cooperating with the probe, which has produced the arrests of two Primary Global employees and three other former consultants for the company. He is the first to plead guilty in the case, although former hedge fund manager Richard Choo-Beng Lee is also cooperating in the investigation. Lee pleaded guilty as part of the Galleon Group insider-trading case last year.

The former Dell global supply manager also said he passed tips on to clients of Guidepoint Global and Vista Research, which Guidepoint acquired last year from Standard & Poor’s, between2 007 and August of this year. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud.

Earlier this month, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin subpoenaed Guidepoint, seeking information about the company’s relationship with a hedge fund based in the state.

Prosecutors asked that DeVore’s sentencing be postponed for three years to allow the investigation, which already has been going on for three years, time to run its course. Rakoff granted that request.

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